Beautiful Girl
by Keena
Summary: 14 years post the events of Serenity Zoe's daughter Andrea discovers that her family isn't who she thought they were.
1. Belong

She brushed her hair and pulled it into a tie at the base of her neck. Leaning forward she frowned at the mirror as she studied the reflection looking for any traits she may have inherited from her mother and father. In the past few weeks she had started to realize that other than her abilities with weapons and a twisted sense of humor, there wasn't much that she had in common with her parents. Her build was slightly larger than most girls her age and from what she gathered from the captures of her father she had eyes similar to his, ones that smiled.

She blew up at a tendril of hair that had escaped from the tie, "This is gonna be one of those days isn't it?" she asked herself.

There was a knock on the door and Zoe popped her head in, "Andrea we're about to land in a few moments."

She turned around and smiled, "Alright Mom, I'll be out in a sec." She stood up and walked to the door of her bunk. She finally convinced everyone to let her move out of her mother's bunk and into one of the rooms away from the crew's bunks last year. It was like she was almost an adult, like everyone else. Maybe her mom would finally let her go on a job soon. Probably not.

"Now, don't be going out there to chase after any boys. We're going to pick up some supplies and that's it,"

"Mom, you seriously need to stop joking about that. How would Mal feel if he knew you were trying to pawn me off on greasy teenage boys?"

"He'd tell you to stop calling him 'Mal'," Mal answered. "What did I tell you about calling me by my first name little one?"

"Not to do it. I can only refer to you as Sir, Captain, or Uncle Mal," Andrea replied, "What did I tell you about calling me 'Little One'?" Andrea tried to stand in her full height.

"That don't matter none, now get going. Kaylee is waiting to take you shopping with her. Now scat."

Andrea did as Mal ordered and headed in the direction of the cargo bay to meet up with Kaylee. "She's going to start wanting to go out on jobs Sir," Zoe stated.

Mal shrugged in response, "I know I was just hopin that that day would coming later rather than sooner."

Andrea began to skip slightly as she made her way into the cargo bay, the skip turned into a slight dance as she started to twirl. Her twirl was abruptly halted when she slammed into a wall. She looked up, "Sorry Jayne! I was distracted."

Hazel eyes meet blue ones for a moment, and then Jayne looked away. "Next time watch where you're going. You're ditzier then your ma." With that he turned around and walked away.

"My mom ditzy? That's like saying Kaylee is a Reaver," Andrea said to herself with a laugh before continuing on her way.

* * *

Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. He nearly told her. Jayne started pacing. He promised Mal he wouldn't and he nearly blew it. Shit. Jayne rubbed at a wound on his chest that had long since healed. He found himself in the mess, where it all happened and looked up at the windows that now changed from the normal black of space to a clear blue sky. This was going to be one of those days, Jayne just knew it.

* * *

"Come on Andrea, we gotta get going so we can find all the shinies. I need a new compression coil for Serenity." Andrea looked up at Kaylee and smiled.

"Where's the short one?" Andrea asked. On cue a little girl came running, her face covered with grease, her overall patched up with teddy bears and rainbows.

"Mama!" the girl shouted out ready to pounce at her mother. Andrea picked her up and held her against her hip.

"You shouldn't be jumping on your Ma like that Lily especially when you're all greasy and gross," Andrea said.

The little girl giggled, "But Daddy said that I should show mom postitive atmossfear on account of her deli-cat position."

"Sweetie, why aren't you still with your father?" Kaylee asked. The young girl shrugged and looked around avoiding eye contact with her mother. "Lily, what did you do?"

"I didn't do anything! I just starting dancing like Drea does and Daddy starting crying! I didn't do anything!"

Andrea watched as Kaylee's normally cheerful face appeared to have a shadow cast over her. "It's not your fault sweetie. You can come with us. Drea can you carry her so she don't get lost in the crowd?"

Andrea nodded and picked up the younger girl, "But what about Simon?"

"Don't worry about him, he just needs to be alone for a little bit," Kaylee answered.

Andrea struggled to keep Lily in her arms, the five year old's attention was captured by the sights and sounds of the marketplace. "Lil, you need to stop squirming around or I'm gonna end up dropping you on your head."

"Just put me down."

"Can't your Ma will yell at me, and so will the Cap'n," Andrea answered. Lily began to struggle and jumped out of Andrea's arms and ran to her mother. She turned to face Andrea and stuck her tongue out. "Brat." Andrea looked around, her gaze stopped on a window for a clothing store. She tilted her head and looked longingly at the dress in the window. It wasn't a particularly fancy dress, it was a simple sundress. Andrea sighed; she wasn't allowed to wear dresses anymore. Her mother said that they got in the way of a job, and they made the wrong kind of men pay attention. Last year, she dressed up to go out when they were planet side in a dress she found tucked away in the closet of her room. It was a simple blue dress, but it was the shiniest thing Andrea ever saw. She wore her hair down, the natural curls made her look like a real girl, instead of the tomboy she was. The second she stepped out of her room and into the mess everyone stopped talking. Then the Captain ordered her to go back to her room and put on some pants and threatened to make her clean out the septic tank. Andrea stopped fantasizing about wearing a dress after hearing Simon and Kaylee arguing in the infirmary.

But this dress in the window was so shiny. Andrea looked back at Kaylee, she was holding on to Lily's hand while she was arguing with a clerk over the price of some engine parts. It wouldn't hurt to go try one on, that way no one could yell at her and she could feel like a girl for a moment.

Andrea examined herself in the mirror, the dress hung well on her frame. She looked much older than fourteen; she could easily pass for eighteen, especially with her hair down. She pulled at her hair, she hated always having it tied up, but that was the way her mother liked it- telling her that she shouldn't hide her pretty face. But Andrea liked hiding sometimes. And the wavy curls that sprung up naturally

Her build was somewhat larger than the average girl, she was slender, and nearly as tall as her mother. She did a slight twirl to watch the dress moved. Movement. Andrea loved movement. She looked down at the hem of the dress, it was transparent and she could see the outline of her feet.

She wiggled her toes and smiled at how odd they looked through her dress. Toes were an interesting thing, but living on a ship leads to a need to always wear shoes. Shoes were annoying and sweaty and hot. Andrea hated shoes.

She took one final look at herself in the dress trying to memorize her appearance. "One day I'm going to buy a big fluffy dress or a super slinky dress and wear it," she looked down at the price of the dress. It was irritation to spend money on an article of clothing. Andrea had saved up to buy some real food to eat, some dried meat to hide in her room to eat and something to drink that wasn't powdered milk or stale water. She changed back into her clothes, the brown pants and dark green shirt. She laced up her boots and took one final look at the dress.

Walking out of the store Andrea smiled to herself while she played with the neatly folded package that held her new dress. And she had enough left over to buy something eat before she had to be back. Scanning the crowd for Kaylee and Lily she was glad to see them in the distance at a general store looking through a bin of wooden toys.

Andrea headed in that direction, looking for some kind of stall to purchase something to eat. She bumped into something and dropped the package containing her dress. Looking up she was surprised to see someone familiar.

Not someone she met before, but the woman in front of her was very familiar. Thinking for a moment Andrea tried to remember if this woman was ever a passenger on Serenity. No, not that she could remember. The woman was shorter and had a smaller build, she was leaner. Andrea's eyes met with the woman's- they were like a cat's. Large, cunning, intelligent. They were like her own.

Andrea looked down to find her dress when she looked up the woman was gone.


	2. Strange Wind

Mal sat in the cockpit looking through the cortex for some kind of job, so far everything was of the illegal smuggling variety.

"Sir, can I talk with you?" Zoe asked.

Mal turned around, "Go right ahead, but I hope it's about some kind of legal job, we got little ones to feed on this boat."

"I think it's time we told Andrea the truth about who she is."

"No."

"Sir, I don't mean to argue but she should know who she really is."

"She knows who she is. She's your daughter, and a member of this crew, when she's older she can do more to help, but until then, she's your daughter."

Zoe looked down at the pilot's chairs, Wash's dinosaurs were long ago packed away when they attempted to hire a new pilot six years ago. His name was Brady Kern; he didn't last but a few months. It wasn't his fault he didn't fit in with the crew. Everyone tried to hold him to the standard of the past pilots.

"I don't think its right to keep lying to her."

"Zoe, we talked about this a long time ago, she doesn't need to know," Mal responded.

"I understand that, but she's getting older now, she's smarter than we think she'll figure it out soon. She just needs to do some basic math and she'll know that her father isn't the man I married."

* * *

Andrea helped Kaylee carry the engine parts back to Serenity; Kaylee had her arms full of an energetic Lily. "Drea, can you take those parts to the engine room for me, I have to drop this one with her father."

"Sure, can you put this in my room for me?"

Andrea adjusted the engine parts in her arms so she could give the package containing her newly purchased dress into Kaylee's free hand. "Ooh, what did you buy? Can I look?"

Andrea shook her head, "It's a surprise for my mom, I wouldn't want her to find out about it, and I want to keep it grease free." Kaylee laughed in response and Andrea left the woman who was like an aunt with her daughter.

For the most part, the ship was quiet, a rare occurrence. Normally there was the sound of Kaylee and Lily playing. Andrea carried the parts into the engine room and placed them in the corner. She wiped the grease from the parts off on her pants and sat down in the well worn hammock that Kaylee had always kept. When she was younger Andrea would sneak into the hammock to listen to the engine. Sometimes it was a gentle hum, others it was a louder. Once the Captain had caught her talking to the engine, he walked away laughing and then her mother came in to take her to their bunk.

She placed her hand against the cool metal of the wall. Watching her hand as the wall absorbed her body heat. She leaned forward and pressed her cheek against the wall, just as she had when she was younger. Andrea closed her eyes and inhaled the scent that was only Serenity deeply trying to clear her thoughts in an attempt to absorb strength from the ship. When she was younger Andrea would imagine that she was created by Serenity, that the ship had given life to her and gave Andrea to her mother to be raised because a ship wasn't able to take care of a child. Now Andrea knew that the idea that her mother was really a ship was silly, but sometimes she still reached out for comfort from Serenity.

Andrea's mind shifted from the safe thoughts of her home to a thin woman with large brown eyes. Eyes that felt so familiar. Even though she met with those eyes for a moment, Andrea still could feel the chill that ran up her spine which was followed for surprising warmth. It was all very confusing. She pulled away from the wall and opened her eyes, "Home," she whispered to herself. The woman felt like home, like Serenity. She shook her head and touched her hair, a nervous tendency she always posses. Touch was important; more could be explained through touch than any of the other senses.

Andrea needed to touch her mother.

She jumped out of the hammock and made her way to her mother's bunk. As she walked she touched what she could in hopes of taking in some calm from the ship in exchange for the heat she gave to it. She stopped near her mother's bunk and tilted her head, considering jumping down the ladder and lying on her mother's bed. Or finding her father's old jumpsuits to ward of the chill brought on by thoughts of the mysterious woman.

But she didn't need do act like a child any longer- she was old enough to take care of herself. There was no need to hide behind her father's possessions. Andrea closed her eyes and thought- perhaps Kaylee would need her help. Lately the mechanic relied oh her help after Simon's insistence that she rest during this pregnancy. She would not go running to her mother for comfort, she could handle this on her own. After all, it was only a stranger, someone Andrea will never see again. The verse was a big place.

She turned to walk back to the engine room but stopped when she heard voices coming from the cockpit.

"I don't think its right to keep lying to her."

"Zoe, we talked about this a long time ago, she doesn't need to know."

"I understand that, but she's getting older now, she's smarter than we think, she'll figure it out soon. She just needs to do some basic math and she'll know that her father isn't the man I married."

Andrea began to breathe heavily. Her father wasn't her father? Maybe she heard wrong. Her father was Hoban Washburne, everyone called him Wash. He was the pilot of Serenity. He was the man my mother fell in love with and married.

Andrea wrapped her right arm around her side and held tightly onto her left arm. She felt dizzy, everything turned blurry. Did her mother have an affair with someone else? Was her father another man? She reached out to touch the wall for stability hoping to absorb more of Serenity's strength. But it wasn't enough. She felt weak, her knees felt fuzzy.

For the first time in her life, Andrea fainted.

* * *

Jayne was hiding in his bunk. It was the only place a man could get some peace and quiet. He pulled out a book from underneath his bed. It was pretty rough around the edges with a plain brown cover. Shepherd had given it to him a long time ago, the last time that they were at Haven. Shepherd Book tucked it in a package with some cigars that he had rolled himself. After everything happened Jayne started reading the book when he couldn't get to sleep, it wasn't till he was ten pages in till he realized that Shepard had given him The Bible to read.

Jayne had read the book tons of times in the past fourteen years. After a while he started pickin' up other books like it. Mostly he bought them when they were at bigger ports. He had a few books on Buddhism that he read. No one really knew that when he went to hide in his bunk he read the entire time. There really wasn't much to do on the ship when they were in the black. Yeah, he'd lift weights sometimes, but workin' out reminded him of his old friend. So he stuck to reading, because he could read when everyone else was asleep. Maybe one day he could stop being such a sinner and become a saint or something. Shepherd always said Saint Jayne had a nice ring to it.

Jayne didn't sleep much. He hadn't slept well in over a decade. Not since- There was a crash, not really a crash it sounded more like someone had fallen. It came from right above.


	3. Deep Forest

Jayne jumped up at the sound of the noise from above, in an instant he was in the walkway looking for any trouble. He glanced down and saw Andrea crumpled to the floor. He knelt down and checked on her, his minding flashing to a time long ago when another girl caused his heart to clench up in fear for her safety.

He carefully picked her up, "Simon!" he shouted. Hearing no response he made his way to the infirmary, again he shouted for the surgeon, "Simon!" Jayne looked down at Andrea and quickened his pace till he reached the infirmary where Simon talking with Lily.

"Simon!" Jayne shouted, but it came out more like a plead. He held out the young girl that was in her arms, there weren't any words to speak. But his actions all said one thing- help.

Simon looked at Jayne, then at Andrea, "What happened?" he asked suspiciously.

"Look Doc, it ain't like that. I was in my bunk and I heard a noise and when I checked I found her on the ground. This ain't the time for arguing over specifics. The girls hurt and you need to help her. She might have hit her head." Jayne placed Andrea on the examination table and Simon frowned and nudged him away from the girl.

"Lily, why don't you go check on your mother?"

The five year old nodded and looked up at Jayne and smiled before leaving to find her mother.

"Jayne, I'll need you to give me some space so I can examine her," Simon stated.

"Hey now, there ain't gonna be any of that."

Simon began to check her pulse, "I can't take care of her with you hovering around like a protective gorilla."

Jayne opened his mouth, but paused and stepped out of the infirmary. As he stepped out Zoe and Mal were rushing towards him guns in hand. "What was all that yelling for Jayne?"

Before Jayne could answer Lily dragged her mother by the hand. "What happened to Drea?" Kaylee asked.

Zoe put down her gun and looked at Jayne, "Is my girl hurt?"

Jayne looked back at Andrea and then at everyone else in the room. Lily had taken to hiding behind her mother; she was the only one who wasn't glaring at him.

"Jayne, I think you better answer that girl's momma's question," Mal ordered. Jayne ignored Mal and looked back at Andrea. "That wasn't a suggestion Jayne."

"She's not her mother," Jayne said before walking away to hide in his bunk. It was times like these that a man needed some of that faith that Shepard always used to talk about.

"What the gorram hell is going on?" Mal asked himself. Behind him in the infirmary Andrea began to stir slightly. Simon stood back in preparation of treating any possible concussion.

"Don't go!" Andrea shouted out. She sat up suddenly and threw off the blanket that Simon had placed on her. She looked around, her eyes wide with confusion, why was everyone talking so loudly? She grabbed her ears and closed her eyes, "Stop it, it's too loud too bright!" she shouted.

Simon froze at the familiarity of the scene before him and the girl continued to mumble things to herself.

Zoe pushed her way forward and wrapped her arms around her daughter, "Shh sweetheart. "It's alright," she continued to whisper calming words to Andrea. She turned to Simon and glared at him, without a word she tried to convey her message- Do something.

Simon shook her head and remembered where he was- he was here with a girl who needed his help now, not with the girl he failed to help in the past. Simon grabbed a smoother and administered it to Andrea. Andrea began to quiet down and fell asleep in her mother's arms. Zoe continued to hold on to her and whisper calming words. Once she felt her daughter was safe she let her go and walked out of the infirmary.

Zoe glared at Mal, "Once she wakes up, I'm telling her." Zoe walked away in search of Jayne.

"Are you sure that's the right thing for her to do?" Simon asked.

Mal looked back at Andrea and frowned, "I honestly don't know any more."

Jayne stomped into the mess and looked through the cabinets for something to drink. He had touched a drop since she walked away. But now he needed one. Everything around him was falling apart again. He reached and found a bottle- it probably tasted like vinegar by now, but that didn't matter. Jayne lifted the bottle to take a sip but stopped as it touched his lips. The thought of a girl with dark brown eyes was haunting him, just like it did every night.

"Jayne?" Zoe asked from the doorway. "I'm going to tell Andrea the truth. I think she is old enough to handle it."

"Yeah, what do you need me for?" Jayne asked gruffly.

Zoe hesitated when she saw the bottle in his hand, "I want you to be there. For her."

Jayne put back the bottle, "When?"

"As soon as she wakes up."


End file.
